Friendships of utility are most common among the elderly because in old age people pursue the useful rather than the pleasant. .
Friendships of pleasure are based on the amount of pleasure the people get from being in the relationship. People who go to football games together, or who go to a pub together might be in this type of relationship. They are friends because the friendship brings them pleasure and enjoyment. Friendships of pleasure are common among young people. Young people quickly become friends and quickly stop being friends. This is because pleasures in younger people constantly change. .
Friendships of virtue, unlike friendships of utility and pleasure, which can include a circle of friends, is a strictly one on one relationship. These types of friendships can only occur between two people of the same virtues. One can only become virtuous through wisdom and age. Therefore, friendships of virtue are not found among young people. It is a relationship of mutual respect and love. The persons in this type of relationship are not in it because they gain something from the relationship, they are not friends because they find each other useful or bring each other pleasure, but because they see virtues in each other they see in themselves. They wish well for their friends for their friend's sake. According to Aristotle, these relationships are rare. Aristotle believed that a friend or virtue is another oneself, or soul mates. A friend or virtue is a key part to self-sufficiency. Virtuous friends spend time with each other and make the same choices as each other. Friend A's happiness contributes to friend B's happiness and visa versa. The friend, in the Aristotelian scheme, becomes an extension of oneself.
It can be argued Aristotle is wrong when he distinguishes between friendships of utility or pleasure and friendships of virtue. Are we as human beings capable of doing a completely unselfish act? Can we truthfully say that we are friends with someone not for our own sake but for the sake of the friends? Personally, I disagree with Aristotle on this.