Why does my phone highlight the top possible selection?

Whenever I'm in most or any app or on the home screen, the first selection sometimes becomes highlighted and prevents me from selecting it or anything else. For example, when going to the Google Play Store, the triple lines selects itself and shows my Google account side menu and then highlights my email drop-down box. When trying to escape and use the search bar, it selects the back arrow (on the top of the screen) and the process starts again! Another example is when on the home screen. The top left folder gets a gray box around it. Anyone have any idea what's causing this malfunction?