There is a mysterious box next to my cursor How do I get rid of it?

This is what I see on my desktop the dotted? Box floats next to my cursor it turns in to a text bar occasionally sometimes the cursor disappears entirely for a moment. when I click on buttons to close or open finder windows I have to click twice or three times then there is a momentary delay then the window closes. Any thoughts? And I do appreciate you all for even taking the time to look at this and help me.

Thanks zoom is not enabled in the System preferences. Smooth images was so I disable this. I also noticed my windows close buttons are no longer responsive. I have to click a few times before they close. Thanks for your timely response macjack I truly appreciate it!

will do

Tried safe mode no love.

This is what I see on my desktop the dotted? Box floats next to my cursor it turns in to a text bar occasionally sometimes the cursor disappears entirely for a moment. when I click on buttons to close or open finder windows I have to click twice or three times then there is a momentary delay then the window closes. Any thoughts? And I do appreciate you all for even taking the time to look at this and help me. Thanks.

In the strangest bit of weirdness this anomaly is gone. I zapped my pram. That didn't do it. However I noticed that at some point I was hooking my laptop up to external monitors, LCD projectors, and my classroom promethean board. I noticed this box no longer appeared. Could this be a issue related to external monitors possibly? Also I noticed when it did happen was when I using an internet browser. Any browser FF, Chrome, Safari. Its frustrating because I can't nail down one cause of the issue. But its no longer there so I'll be happy with that. I want to thank all of you who responded so quickly with really good suggestions to get this issue fixed. you are all wonderful! Cheers!