As some movies such as Beetlejuice and Casper might have you believe, being a ghost is a pretty cool gig.  Besides being indestructible, you do not have to fear the idea of death anymore.  The age at which you became ghost would enterally be the same, meaning you would never have to fear the notion of growing old.  If somehow you were an older individual, your body would automatically shift back to a much younger form.  You can walk through solid objects with ease, and due to being invisible, could pull a heck of a lot of pranks on unsuspecting mortals.  Eating or sleeping would be unneeded, and you could party the night away.  Now without laws or monetary reasons holding you back, you could travel the entire planet at your leisure, seeing the places you have always desired to visit.  From the looks of it, being a ghost sounds like a pretty good gig.

  However, what you are signing up for when becoming a ghost is far from the never-ending party you might believe it is.  When you become a ghost, you have signed up for an eternity of endless loneliness.  Being a ghost is an easy trip down depression alley that unless some type of good afterlife were to come in the deal would never cease to end.  There are various downsides to being a ghost that outweigh the small things such as walking through walls or pulling a few leisurely pranks on unsuspecting individuals.

  The first immediate downside to the entire idea of becoming a ghost is that to become one, you would have to already died.  Death is an extremely scary subject for anyone to think about, due to the unknown nature of what comes next.  Some people believe you will form into the soul-filled essence that is a spirit, with all of your memories and personality in place.  Others believe that after death there is nothing, and you cease to exist completely the minute your brain shuts down forever.  You will essentially have no idea as to whether or not becoming a ghost is actually possible, as the few documented cases of spiritual conversations are very questionable to say the least.  In death, there is no guarantee there will be anything to look forward to.

  Then there is the actual process of dying itself.  To say the least, almost all forms of death are extremely painful, even if they are quick.  There is nothing desirable in wanting to suddenly end it all just for the small chance you might come back as a spirit or be spared from the everyday strain of living.

  If you do come back as a spirit at all, worse things are in store.  Due to being invisible, you will be completely unable to talk with your loved ones.  Those same loved ones meanwhile will be deep in mourning due to your untimely death, entering indescribable despair in the process.  Depending on the conditions of being a ghost, you may not be able to hold any objects to indicate your presence either.  You will literally just being floating around alone while having to watch the ones you love deeply mourn you.  Unless your family are psychics or your loved ones contact a medium, being a ghost is going to be a depressingly lonely experience.

  The only other individuals you will easily be able to talk to are other ghosts, who will probably not be in the mood to talk all that much.  They will be going through their own individual troubles as a ghost that they probably will want to keep to themselves.  If you do strike up a conservation, you will basically be talking to a stranger you know nothing about.  To say the least, conversations in the afterlife either are going to be impossible or extremely awkward. 

  Finally, most ghosts are known to be trapped inside the very space in which they died.  That means traveling is going to be next to impossible, unless the spiritual rules are different than this depending on the source material.  Even with the ability to travel, there is really not going to be any satisfaction from it.  You will not be able to fully experience the beautiful social activity of each desired location, the real reason a lot of people desire travel in the first place.  Traveling in essence is about interacting with cultures different than yours, something that is robbed from you as a ghost.  In truth, traveling is going to be just as dull as being trapped inside a single location forever.

  It is with all of this evidence that I do not know how any writers would see becoming a ghost to be a thrilling experience.  All that comes out of being a ghost is enteral despair and loneliness that can never be cured.  Like becoming any type of other supernatural creature, being a ghost is not at all as fun as it sounds.