What data type displays text, including emoticons, to computer users?

The correct answer is Unicode. Unicode is a character encoding standard that aims to provide a comprehensive way to represent text from various languages and scripts, as well as a wide range of symbols, including emoticons. This inclusivity makes it vital for modern computing, as it allows for seamless display and handling of diverse characters across different platforms and devices.

While ASCII is a character encoding standard that can represent basic English characters and control codes, it is limited to 128 unique symbols and does not support characters outside this range, which is why it cannot display emoticons or characters from many other languages. Binary refers to the most fundamental data representation in computers using two states (0s and 1s) but does not designate any specific type of content like text. Hexadecimal, on the other hand, is a base-16 number system that is often used in computing as a shorthand for binary but, like binary, does not inherently handle text character representation.

Thus, Unicode stands out as the correct choice because it encompasses a broader array of characters, making it capable of displaying both standard text and emoticons effectively.