What is meaning? Some idea with a future basis that the self (by fulfilling) can find connection with; meaning is a matter of connectedness. If I have one or more possibilities that I sense are fitting for me (which probably always comes down to a belief in happiness or fulfillment), then I have meaning. (The other definition of meaning is technically correct semiotically, but here we're speaking of what might be called existential meaning or life meaning.)
To live without meaning, therefore, is to live without possibilities. Living without possibilities means being choked up with necessity -- only doing the one thing you're currently doing to the unforseen future. That's suffocating. So yes, the self needs meaning.
And yeah, it's a matter (always and in every time) of individual preference. What's meaningful for me (what would connect my present self with the future in bringing me happiness or contentment) is not the same thing, necessarily, as what's meaningful for you. But there might be "meaning universals", i.e., sets of very basic shared meanings among the human race. I'm skeptical of that, though, given different levels of maturity. We all are certainly better off if we're loved and if we love others, but because of our level of maturity we might not value love or loving others, and because in these moments we don't value love in this way, it's not meaningful to us -- even if not having it damages us.