Problem with computer or OS?

Question

Right, my laptop is all up to date, a MacBook Air 13 inch late 2013 model, and as of late, I've discovered something that is hindering my ability to work on programs like pages and other apps like that, pretty much every app I've used has this problem.
I can't put it in to words but I will try my best. It's like when you click off of an application, so that the window is still up but for example in pages you won't get anything typing, and it comes up with the little sound effect to tell you that you aren't typing anything, but the problem is that the programs do it automatically and by themselves, and I will be writing something for school and I'll write what I think is a paragraph and actually look back at my screen and see that only a sentence has been writing because it clicked off of itself and I didn't realise.
Of course I can click back onto it, but when I'm in a flow of work I don't want to be doing that as that will slow me down. Are there any fixes for this? is this a problem that other people are facing, can anything be done about this problem? If people need to know, I type by resting my hands on the computer, and having them sit there, not moving, so I think that it may be touching the touchpad, or there may be some dust in the touchpad or something but I don't know.
Does anyone have any help for me or is it a problem I'm facing? Thank you, it's driving me crazy.

Answer 1

One possibility is a third party software conflict.  Some ways to test this out include seeing if the bad behavior persists when: (a) turning off all login items, and/or (b) logging in as a different user, e.g., Guest, and/or starting up in Safe Mode.