Like a lot of guitarists who are just starting, I wanted to be purely self taught.
I did not want to conform to someone's style or play other peoples material.
However, that is a pipe dream.
There is no such thing as being self taught.
Every time you listen to, watch or jam with another guitar player, you will more than likely learn something from them.
I recommend learning from as many sources as possible.
Deciding on whether to take lessons depends on how you learn.
If you are a quick learner and well disciplined, you probably do not need to take structured guitar lessons.
If you need interaction to learn, then you may want to consider taking lessons.
Whether or not you decide to take lessons, it will help tremendously if you have another guitar player to get together with and play guitar.
This person does not need to be better than you.
Just having someone to share new things with will double the rate you are currently learning at.
Everything a guitar teacher teaches you can probably be found in a book somewhere, but just hearing and seeing someone else play it will help a lot.
Books and magazines are excellent tools to use.
It is important to study from them.
Some authors I really enjoy are Wolf Marshall and Arlen Roth.
I especially recommend anything by Arlen Roth for beginning guitarists.
All the guitar magazines out there are very good, Guitar World, and Guitar Magazine are two of my favorites.
And of course there is the internet.
Every type of lesson imaginable is out there for you to discover and try in print, in audio, and in video.
And best of all most of it is free.