Info-Mac

i've been having this issue for the past few days where a black box appears around all kinds of things, seemingly randomly, and they don't show up in screenshots... what is going on here??

You've turned on VoiceOver. If you don't hear any speaking, it's probably because your computer's speakers are muted - VoiceOver speaks every action you're doing.

To turn it off go to System Preferences -> Universal Access -> VoiceOver "Off"